New group to put God's love in action

Published 11:25 am, Saturday, April 11, 2015

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

New group to put God's love in action

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Their mission is to not only share their faith in word or speech, but to put God's message into action.

So, equipped with a bible and a tool belt, a new Christian outreach ministry is hoping not just to improve the living conditions of their neighbors in need, but to offer the spiritual tools that will open the door to God's love in their lives.

"When we reach out to people and show them Christ's love through us, it typically opens the door for them to hear what we have to say, and our message is Christ's love," said Tim Harper, project manager for the recently established Love in Action Ministry.

Started by several Christian men in Plainview, the Love in Action Ministry is aiming to share God's love with the community by offering home repairs to those in need free of charge.

"We wanted to not only improve the home environment, the physical environment, that they live in, but also improve their spiritual life as well," said Dr. John McClanahan, president of the Love in Action initiative. "And this is just another way for us to use our abilities to reach people with Christ's love."

McClanahan helped to start Love in Action late in 2014 after a brainstorming session with Chris Holt, vice president of the organization.

"We wanted to start a mission that could help us reach people, to get them involved in church, to teach them about Jesus and his love for them," McClanahan said. "And we thought what better way to do that than to actually use our physical labor to help people out, to not only talk to them about God's love, but show them God's love."

McClanahan said while working at the West Texas Family Medicine clinic, the two started to hear that a significant amount people in the community were living in very poor conditions.

"We saw a lot of people in town living in sub-optimal living conditions," McClanahan said.

McClanahan heard of community members living without water or plumbing because of broken pipes, children freezing and getting sick because homes weren't properly insulated, families living on dirt floors, and much more.

Feeling called to help these people and share God's love, the two opted to create the ministry.

"Next we figured we had to find some people to put in place to help us out," McClanahan said.

The two reached out, and the response was overwhelming as droves of people offered to help.

"I had a drive to be a part of the community itself," said Phillip Richards, a new member of the Love in Action board of directors."This opens up doors for not only me and my family to be able to serve our community, but opens the doors for the people that are receiving."

Plainview City Manager and Love In Action board member Jeffery Snyder agreed.

"To build on what Phil was saying, there's a lot of people in Plainview whose home environment is not optimal," Snyder said. "This gives us an opportunity to go in their home and work with them to make improvements, and raise their standard of living."

To coordinate the home projects, the group sought the help of contractor Tim Harper to be the project manager.

"We thought Tim Harper would be perfect because he has Harper ministry and he is very good at home remodeling," McClanahan said.

As word of their efforts got out, local businesses started to offer their specific expertise to assist in the Love in Action movement. This included companies like McCoy's, Walmart, Sherman-Williams paint, King Carpet, Chilton Heating and Air, Robert's and Son plumbing and many more who wanted to offer their services free of charge or at a discounted rate.

"The people we have involved, we can pretty much fix anything," Harper said, adding that they have access to every service from every level of carpentry, landscaping, heating and air, electrical, plumbing and roofing.

"We want to offer help to anyone that doesn't have the means to do it themselves. Either because of age or maybe because of financial limitations," said McClanahan.

To apply for help or to sign up as a volunteer, McClanahan mentioned that his friend Kirby Dunn had set up a website for the Love in Action group as well as a Facebook page.

The website will allow the organization to find out who to help as application forms are available. It will also help the group figure out volunteer resources they have available.

"We are going to try to maintain a database for volunteers and helpers, so when we have a project we need to do, we'll have an adequate picture of depth in the personnel that can help us," said Richards.

McClanahan added that even if you don't have a specific skill, every volunteer can be utilized in some way; from painting, cleaning or just throwing away the trash.

Dr. Mark McClanahan added that the volunteer effort also can help to utilize the expertise of retired people, who can mentor the youth who come out and help on projects.

"This can be beneficial for the sake of the volunteers, not just the recipients," said Mark McClanahan.

Since starting this group, John McClanahan said he has felt a divine boost in their efforts.

"Everything has just fallen into place so easily," McClanahan said.

Since the idea sparked late in 2014, Love in Action has grown tremendously in just over four months. Even their non-profit tax status, which usually takes six months to get accepted, took only two weeks to come through.

The group has even begun its first project. They have fixed the plumbing of an 80-year-old woman's home, thanks to their resources with Robert and Son's Plumbing.

McClanahan said that the woman's pipes had frozen and busted back in the winter. Since then, the woman had been hauling water into her home.

"We were able to fix it quickly and at a discounted rate," McClanahan said.

But that wasn't the only problem in the home. The group will return in May to fix other issues.

McClanahan said most of the time, if someone doesn't have the means to fix an issue in the home, over time the problem will get worse and worse and commonly leads to other problems.

"We want to make sure that they have the essential things that they need to live in a safe environment," added Snyder.

But as they discover problems in the home, the total bill can add up when trying to make the home adequate to live in. To cover the funds, Love in Action relies on the generosity of the community.

"We are strictly funded by donation," McClanahan said.

McClanahan said revenue to fund the purchasing of materials and tools for the projects comes from the hearts of fellow Christians in the community.

"Everything is limitless when God's hand is in it. But we need the help from the community," McClanahan said.

The group also is in need of a storage space to keep the equipment they have already purchased.

To raise money, the Love in Action group will have a community fundraiser from 6-7:30 p.m. May 12 at the Plainview Rotary building at Runningwater Draw Regional Park. Food and fun will be provided free of charge.

Donations can be given to the group members at any time, and soon the group will have the ability to accept donations online at liaministry.com.